The ultimate insider

Kadir: ‘Politics is a very dynamic thing. Nothing in politics is permanent.’

“ARE you Kadir Jasin?” a stranger asked the veteran newsman, who was at a mamak shop in Petaling Jaya.

“I can be Kadir Jasin, if you want me to be,” said Datuk A. Kadir Jasin, who was then Media and Communications head of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP).

“Kadir Jasin is handsome and you are handsome,” said the 60-something man.

They shook hands as the stranger told Kadir, “You are one of the unsung heroes”.

.It was June 6, and on that day the veteran newsman was making news. He had written a controversial post on his blog about the upkeep and personal expenditure of Sultan Muhammad V in the 16 months since he became the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

“I wear too many hats. When I wrote that blog I was wearing my newsman hat but the media quoted me as the spokesman of CEP,” he said, and three days later he quit as CEP Media and Communications head.

It was a hectic day on Thursday for the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia supreme council member, who had several meetings with prominent people and former journalists.

When asked about the stranger’s comment that he was an unsung hero, Kadir said it was not about him.

“It is about the people who are so excited about the Pakatan victory that they want to have a share in it. At least in being able to tell somebody – ‘Look, I am with you, we are in the struggle together, we succeeded and we are happy about it’,” he said.

Kadir felt the people’s enthusiasm and jubilation with the Pakatan victory seems to be going strong, even after about 60 days since they started governing the country.

He said he still got greetings similar to that the one from the stranger: “The people are still in victory mode. But I hope they also understand that if their expectations are not met or not fully met, it is because the problems facing this government is just too big that you can’t change things within the promised 100 days as it has inherited problems created decades ago.”

He is not surprised, however, if the jubilant public is already asking, “Why is the change a bit slow?”

The most frequent political questions he gets from the public are on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the Prime Minister.

“Will he stay? Can he stay? Is his health good enough? Are there attempts to shorten or lengthen his tenure as Prime Minister’, they ask.”

His answer on Dr Mahathir’s health is: “At 93 he is extremely healthy, active and alert.”

On whether Dr Mahathir will stay as Prime Minister, Kadir said: “We have said during the election that Tun Mahathir will be seventh PM and Anwar (PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) will be the eighth PM. As far as I am concerned, that is the situation,” he said.

But how about in terms of realpolitik?

Said Kadir, “Politics is a very dynamic thing. Nothing in politics is permanent. Who would imagine that Tun Mahathir would criticise (Datuk Seri) Najib (Tun Razak), leave Umno, form a political party, fight Umno and win the election? Many people hoped he would succeed but nobody really believed 100% that it would happen.”

On whether his tenure will be short or long, Kadir said, “He seems to enjoy politics. He seems to enjoy being the Prime Minister. People seem to like the idea of him being the Prime Minister and ge­nerally people like what they see and hear of him as Prime Minister the second time.”

“But the talk is Anwar is a man in a hurry and that he wants to be Prime Minister yesterday?” I said.

To which he answered, “I think not Anwar. Other people are promoting this idea. And what we heard is it is happening at the unlikely level and not just political level. I don’t rate them as being too significant.

“If it was to happen, it must happen within Pakatan Harapan. And the keyword for Pakatan – and this is promoted by PKR or Pakatan has accepted PKR’s way of doing thing – is consensus. And the consensus is down to the last person.

“No one person will have a say – I want to be Prime Minister tomorrow or I actually want to be Prime Minister.”

After giving a lengthy explanation on how Dr Mahathir persevered to bring down the Najib government, Kadir said: “Anybody who knows Tun Mahathir at all, would know that it is not easy to tell Tun Mahathir that now that we have succeeded, can we go now? Many in Pakatan would say, please don’t hush the old man.”

As he saw it, the relationship between Dr Mahathir and Anwar is strong.

“Tun Mahathir, Tun Daim (Zainuddin) and Anwar have been friends for a long time. Anwar wouldn’t have been where he is today had Tun Mahathir not picked him among the radical Malay leaders in 1982 and literally installed him in Umno against the wishes of many.

“And between Tun Mahathir and Daim, they ensured Anwar grew in Umno and it went on until 1998,” he said.

That year, Dr Mahathir sacked Anwar as deputy Prime Minister and Umno deputy president and later charged him for corruption and sodomy, I pointed out.

“Wouldn’t that be motivation for Anwar to take on Dr Mahathir as Prime Minister?” I asked.

“Anwar must debate with himself (on that matter). There is nobody else who can help him out if he is in any dilemma whatsoever regarding what happened to him in 1998,” said Kadir, who was New Straits Times Group Editor at that time.

“He has to look at the event from his own perspective and recall what really happened during that period. All I can say is that for one whole year of 1997 when that letter by Ummi Hafilda Ali was circulating, accusing Anwar of certain things, Dr Mahathir kept on saying that it was nothing more of a surat layang (poison letter) and fitnah (slander).”

Kadir does not see anybody in Pakatan Harapan wanting to rock the (Dr Mahathir) boat because the Pakatan government won a spectacular victory from the people.-Star